Personality Types A and B

Having a ‘type A personality’ has become shorthand for a certain sort of competitive or domineering person, but what does it really mean?

Knowing the type of personality you possess and using the same knowledge in consideration of others when trying to achieve a mutual goal can work to your advantage. Once you recognise personality types you can use your understanding of how that personality type works to make the most of everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. It works especially well with your own kids and family.

Type A and type B personality theory was created by a pair of cardiologists. In the 1950s, Meyer Friedman and RH Rosenman were researching the possible causes of coronary disease. After a nine-year study of over 3,000 healthy men aged 35-59, Friedman and Rosenman speculated that certain patterns of behaviour carried a higher risk, and devised a method for categorising patients.

Examples of questions asked by Friedman & Rosenman included:

• Do you feel guilty if you use spare time to relax?
• Do you need to win in order to derive enjoyment from games and sports?
• Do you generally move, walk and eat rapidly?
• Do you often try to do more than one thing at a time?

From their responses, and from their manner, each participant was put into one of three groups:

Type A Behaviour

Competitive, ambitious, impatient, aggressive, fast talking. They concluded that someone with a Type A personality is more likely to be concerned with status and achievement. They are often workaholics, who may have issues with self-esteem and impatience. They’re also more likely to be quick to anger.

Type B Behaviour

Relaxed, non-competitive, take on one thing at a time, express their feelings. Type B personalities report higher levels of life satisfaction and are more likely to be patient and even-tempered.

Type AB Behaviour

‘Nice,’ hard working but become apathetic when faced with stress

Type A’s are more likely to have their ‘flight or fight’ response set off by things in their environment. As a result they are more likely to have the stress hormones present, which over a long period of time leads to a range of stress-related illnesses.

Type B individuals are a contrast to those with Type A personalities. People with Type B personality by definition generally live at a lower stress level and typically work steadily, enjoying achievement but not becoming stressed when they do not achieve. When faced with competition, they do not mind losing and either enjoy the game or back down. They may be creative and enjoy exploring ideas and concepts. They are often reflective, thinking about the outer and inner worlds.

Although we still use the term ‘Type A’, there has been much debate over whether it is a valuable measure of personality, and whether a simple test is enough to determine the likelihood of future illness. Overtime, the Type A/B theory has been heavily criticised for excluding female volunteers and relying on large and unequal sample sizes.

Which personality category sounds most like you? Do you use knowledge about personality types to your advantage?

Krissy Hacker a SAHM of 3 kids under 3 and a half, surviving on minimum sleep, maximum humour and compliments from her lovely husband. She loves reviving old school ways of doing things and would do anything to get out of housework!